The adventures of John, Katherine and Gunner.

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This is a picture of John’s Grandad (Richard) and Grandmother (Charlene) with his Dad (Rick, age 2) and Aunt (Deb, age 4?). I find the resemblance between Richard then and John now to be pretty amazing, and between Rick then and Gunner now as well. What a handsome family!

Gunner turned one on March 26, and I still cannot believe that a year has come and gone. It has been such a great year! Nana and Uncle Tom came on his birthday weekend (Grandpa had to stay back and tend to baby calves being born), and Grandad and JuJu came the following weekend. Even though Gunner was sick on his birthday, he tried his best to enjoy every bit of it! Here are a few pictures and video to highlight both weekends…

Gunner had his first popsicle in an attempt to reduce his “birthday fever.” I’m very glad we captured this exciting new experience on video!

Gunner is learning how to work hard like his dad in the workshop.

He has a sweet tooth, I’m so proud to call him mine!

Gunner enjoyed Nana’s reading style, especially with Go, Dog G0!

He is full of kisses for his momma, and she’ll take ’em!

Grandad and Gunner on Easter morning. Praise the Lord for a reason to celebrate, He is risen indeed!

JuJu created this spectacular Easter basket, full of goodies, for Gunner!

Grandad and Gunner’s birthdays are a day apart, so they celebrated together!

We made a family trip to Zappos, and John was very pleased to find these Carhartt overalls 1/2 off. This video captures his excitement over the purchase…

When we became pregnant, unsolicited advice came out of the woodwork. Everything from, “Enjoy your sleep now because you won’t have any more in ____ months” to “I hope you’ve been saving for years, because having a baby is SO expensive”.

Well, almost 9 months ago as we came home from the hospital prepared for countless sleepless nights, we found out the naysayers were exactly right. We didn’t sleep much that first week – but not so much from the crying. We didn’t sleep very well because we laid in bed listening to him breathe from the other room, hanging on every coo coming from his sleeping, precious little body.

New parents are often overwhelmed by how much their baby needs. The new baby needs food. The new baby needs milk. The new baby needs diapers. The new baby needs clothes. The new baby needs fisher price.

(insert sound of a record scratch here)

Wait. Fisher Price?

Its amazing how much money the toy industry generates when Gunner is completely enthralled with:

A desk drawer at Dad’s office:

A cardboard box that Daddy brought home from the gun range today:

The dust bunnies underneath the chair in the living room:

A steering wheel in the parking lot of the hospital while Mommy worked at the Emergency Room:

A Christmas tree with a few lights and ornaments on it.

As we prepare to celebrate the ultimate gift ever given by buying and sharing gifts with one another, we hope that you understand that it won’t make any difference whether a child receives an American Girl doll, or 15 Star Wars Lego sets: They’ll probably end up playing with the wrapping paper – or the box.

John’s Mom and Dad came to Louisville this weekend (and in fact, at the time of this writing are still here)

Jan really enjoyed making Gunner laugh by sneezing at him.

In case you can’t pick up the conversation being had while the camera was rolling, please, allow me to transcribe below the video below:

Jan: “a-a-a-a-achoo”

All: “hahaha”

Jan: “you’re the only one that laughs at me, Gunner, thank you, I love you.”

Rick (from across the room): “He’ll outgrow it.”

One more video can be added to this blog post. It could be titled: “the foolish lengths babies will compel fully grown adults to go to just to hear them laugh”. But I think I’ll just shorten it to “Mom making Gunner laugh”. Enjoy.

Do y’all remember where Gunner took his first step? That’s right, not two minutes after he entered this world he took his first step onto the great state of Texas. Tonight was his first opportunity to prove himself worthy of such a giant step. And he did us proud.

Katherine and I dug deep into our imaginations to come up with the perfect costume for our little cowhand’s first Halloween. Really it was quite easy. We just picked the clothes that were on top of all the other ones in his drawers (and mine).

For your viewing pleasure:

Upon the arrival at our church’s “Trunk or Treat,” we were informed by a church member (Chris Burtch) that Gunner and I looked most “natural” in our costumes.

Gunner’s friend, Sadie, decided that she didn’t like the scary costumes that came around. Skeletons, vampires, and werewolves weren’t her thing. Her parents told her she only had to give candy to the trick or treaters that didn’t scare her. This picture speaks for itself at how comfortable she was with the little wrangler.

What do you want to bet this isn’t the last time Gunner taps into his deep Texas roots for Halloween?